Skip to main content

My First ALA Conference


Star Wars at ALA
Originally uploaded by dumbsarah
At the last minute I decided to visit this year's American Library Association conference. It just so happens that my college roommate lives less than 10 blocks from McCormick Place, where the conference was held. Add in the fact that it was my first full weekend off since sometime in May, so of course I wanted to spend my time off with other librarians.

Since I was only in town for the day on Saturday, I just stuck to the exhibits, but that was enough for me. Luckily, I've been to similar types of conferences before so it wasn't too surprising, but it was still a little surreal to see so many librarians in one place at the same time.

The part that was overwhelming to me is that I've now been a librarian long enough that I actually found most of the exhibitors relevant to my work life, but I haven't been a librarian long enough to know how to make the most of that relevance.

There were giveaways and prize drawings to enter all over the place. I signed up for a few free book drawings. I got a few free children's books that I know will go over swimmingly and grabbed a few advance copies of books in my selection areas.

But the rest of the time I walked around the exhibitor floor a little dazed and overwhelmed and the sheer size of the place. So I guess I'm glad I only planned to check out the exhibits and didn't try to do more on my first, planned at the last minute, trip to ALA.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PLA - Day 1

Today was my first day at the Public Library Association conference, and I'm not sure how I'm going to do 2.5 more days and keep my head from exploding. There's just so much that's so relevant to my job, I can find something interesting everywhere I look. This morning I went to the Get Your Game On: Gaming in Libraries Preconference, and it was wonderful. I realized that I need to stop playing the role of wife of a gamer and own that I know a thing or two about video games, too, and what I don't know I can learn. Eli and Aaron spent the first half of the program talking about the benefits of gaming and why libraries should be doing gaming, which is something I'd always bought, but never been very good at articulating. Essentially it boils down to all the different types of literacies learned through video games and what are libraries for if not promoting literacy. It was also interesting they argued that the way libraries get the most value out of gaming is by...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ebooks & Libraries

For a long time I've been frustrated with the way ebook publishers have been approaching library lending, but my rage has been overruling my sense and I haven't been able to get many coherent thoughts into print. Luckily Bobbi Newman pretty much hit the nail on the head with her " 9 Reasons Why Publishers Should Stop Acting Like Libraries Are the Enemy and Start Thanking Them ". I could go through each of her reasons and expound on why each one makes so much sense and explains a piece of where my frustration is coming from, but I'm going to focus on the points that have been bugging me the most. First from the consumer side, I know I'm not alone in the group of people who don't like to buy books until they're pretty sure they're going to love them. I simply read too much for buying every book I read to make any sort of financial sense. Often that means borrowing the first book in a series or by a new author to see if I want to spend money on th...
1 comment
Read more

2022 Reading Resolutions

One hundred books per year generally seems to work for me, so I'm not going to change what's been working for me. Total Books Read: 92  of 100 I'm going to try to stretch a little on reading books I own, since belonging to a Bible study where I end up buying about 8 of the books I read a year made 10 a little too easy. Books I Own Read: 16 of 15 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress  by Robert Heinlein Disappeared  by Francisco X. Stork Trustworthy: Overcoming Our Greatest Struggles to Trust God  by Lysa TerKeurst Be More RBG  by Marilyn Easton Not Your Sidekick  by C. B. Lee Stay Gold  by Tobly McSmith Secret Soldiers: How the U.S. Twenty Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis  by Paul B. Janeczko The Henna Wars  by Adiba Jaigirdar Never Look Back  by Lilliam Rivera A Brief History of Fascist Lies  by Federico Finchelstein Sex Lives of the Roman Emperors  by Nigel Cawthorne American Royalty ...
Post a Comment
Read more